I've been using a similar WiFi drive - the 500GB Seagate GoFlex Satellite. I use it among my Fire, Motorola Xoom tablet, a netbook, and a laptop. People have reported issues with it but I haven't had any problems. You can access it either through a Seagate app or a browser and it supports multiple, concurrent users.

I didn't see anything about it on the Kingston's writeup but there is generally a limitation with these devices - because they generate their own local network, you cannot access the Internet when connected to one of these. That's true with the Seagate, don't know on the Kingston.

Dave

Dave,
The reason it works with the Kingston is that the Kingston is able to connect to your WiFi Network and once it is, then when you're connected with the Wi-Drive, you're also on the Net. Pretty swift.

Correct. The point is that this device limits you to a maximum
of 13 characters which is too few for a secure passphrase.
WPA/WPA2 allows up to 63 characters.

Quote:

8 to 13 characters for a WPA-PSK key is reasonably safe so long
as your pass phrase is comprised of random a-z and 0-9
alphanumeric characters.

Reasonably safe against what - accidentally connecting to your
WiFi network? Given current methods of attacking the WPA/WPA2
passphrase 20 characters is about the minimum which can stand up
to an attack for a reasonable amount of time.

Quote:

When I was in the Navy I had to use a 16 character system
passwords and these were confusing and easily forgotten.

Completely different. Asking someone to enter a password to gain
access on a daily basis or even more often is not the same as
setting a WiFi passphrase once in a device and not having to set
it again until you decide it needs to be changed.

Quote:

My Samsung Galaxy S2 phone uses wpa/wpa2 and it has only 8 characters.

Of course nothing stops you from using only 8 characters. But on
your phone you are not limited to 13 characters so if someone
wants to have a secure WiFi network they are free to use more.

(FWIW - an 8 character WPA/WPA2 passphrase can be broken on
average in half a day or less. We do it routinely as part of our
security scan. Make sure whatever WiFi network your phone
associates with does not have any traffic you would not like to
see broadcast to everyone within a kilometer or so.)

Quote:

My wep on my router required 26 and was a horror and is not as secure.

That is due to flaws in the WEP algorithm, not due to the
passphrase length. WEP with 8 or 800 character passphrase is just
as vulnerable.

Why is it a horror? You only had to enter the passphrase once on
each device. It is not something you had to do every day or even
every week.

That is due to flaws in the WEP algorithm, not due to the
passphrase length. WEP with 8 or 800 character passphrase is just
as vulnerable.

Why is it a horror? You only had to enter the passphrase once on
each device. It is not something you had to do every day or even
every week.

My work involves experimenting a lot with different add-ons so I am always entering it. I've since memorized it but it takes time to enter it correctly with these keyboards.

I never said that the relative insecuritiy of WEP was due to the length of the passphrase. Only that it was a horror because it's long, and nothing to do with being the cause of that more insecuret choice.

Reasonably safe against what - accidentally connecting to your WiFi network? Given current methods of attacking the WPA/WPA2 passphrase 20 characters is about the minimum which can stand up to an attack for a reasonable amount of time.

I have safely used an 8 character WPA2-PSK on my home network for many years and nobody has ever accidentally connected to it. WPA/WPA2 is vulnerable when simple pass phrases are used. If a hacker is sniffing wireless packets they can launch an off-line dictionary attack against your PSK passphrase, and if your passphrase is in the wordlist then chances are yes the attack will be successful. In other words, if you use any “common password”, your password is easily crackable. The exploit used by coWPAtty and other similar tools is one of dumb passphrases. This allows hackers to leverage a human element in obtaining the key.

To make it more uncrackable, you need to use a password that contains random letters, digits and (if allowed) punctuation. If you’re going to use WPA2 to secure your home WLAN, then do it right by choosing a strong and random PSK passphrase. The more random your WPA preshared key, the safer it is to use. Using a-z and 0-9 characters, there are 36 possibilities per character with combinations of PSKs equals 36 raised to the number of characters used. While cracking a really strong 8 character password is possible, it is impractical to use the time and resources required to target a home user. Of course a longer passphrase is more secure, but unless your guarding state secrets, 8 characters used correctly is the minimum and an acceptable password length. And if you are guarding state secrets you would be foolish to use wireless in the first place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by keeska

Asking someone to enter a password to gain access on a daily basis or even more often is not the same as setting a WiFi passphrase once in a device and not having to setit again until you decide it needs to be changed.

I'm aware it is not the same but it illustrates the point, if it is difficult to remember a long and complex password used on a daily basis imagine how hard it becomes when you need to change the password or add another device down the road six months later. Like you said, set it and forget it, literally. While most routers have a hard reset which makes it easy to recover lost admin and Wi-Fi passwords, sometimes this leads to more headaches and frustration for the average home user.

Dave, I saw that there was an XDA-Developer thread on it, pointing to my blog entry, and I am testing a unit now.

I wrote there that "It provides its own WiFi network to which up to 3 devices can connect but also has an extra element that allows it to use a bridging mechanism to let your Kindle Fire be connected to the Internet and the Wi-Drive at the same time (not possible with the otherwise interesting AirStash with nice features of its own). You can be using media from the Wi-Drive while looking up something on the Net."

I have just bought such a Wi-Drive and I'm testing it right now. Access to the internet doesn't work at my office (there's a HTTP proxy, and it seems it's impossible to set up the proxy from the device settings page, or on my Nexus S android phone altogether). So I have to choose : wifi access to the Wi-drive, OR wifi access through proxy to the internet.
The Wi-drive application for android devices is still in beta though (I'm glad it works on the Nexus S, as it targeted android tablets). I don't know if there's a proxy support in the iOS app.
edit : if you have a better experience with a proxy, please give us some details

8 to 13 characters for a WPA-PSK key is reasonably safe so long as your pass phrase is comprised of random a-z and 0-9 alphanumeric characters.
[...]
In fact, sometimes a longer password is more easily compromised because people get sloppy and write them down.
?t=158054&highlight=drive[/url]

Correct. Plus, it appears that this is a portable device, used intermittently, a hacker would really need to be stalking you to crack it via WPA dictionary attack with even a moderately strong 8 char password.

After reading this thread, I picked up the 32gb model on Amazon for $89 new my question is, and this may be really dumb but, does it have to be dedicated to just one device? Could I store stuff from bot my Kindle Fire and 16gb iPad 1 on the same portable hard drive?

After reading this thread, I picked up the 32gb model on Amazon for $89 new my question is, and this may be really dumb but, does it have to be dedicated to just one device? Could I store stuff from bot my Kindle Fire and 16gb iPad 1 on the same portable hard drive?

After reading this thread, I picked up the 32gb model on Amazon for $89 new my question is, and this may be really dumb but, does it have to be dedicated to just one device? Could I store stuff from bot my Kindle Fire and 16gb iPad 1 on the same portable hard drive?

It is not dedicated to one device. The App for accessing resides on the device and not the Wi-Drive itself. In fact, check out this thread where an iPad owner who owns a Wi-Drive was trying to get it to work with the Fire. You may want to PM him and ask him if he is able to use it on both.

I picked up both the 32 GB Wi-Drive and the 500 GB Seagate GoFlex Satellite a month ago. The Wi-Drive connects with both Kindle Fires, but the Wi-Drive app is not compatible with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus. The GoFlex Satellite connects with all three, although the GoFlex Media app had to be sideloaded onto the Fires. We like being able to use the bridge mode of the Wi-Drive so the Fires can stream movies and still have wifi access. That's the one drawback of the GoFlex Satellite, connect to it and you have no wifi. The GoFlex Satellite has much better storage capacity, 500 GB v. 32 GB, but having the wifi connection gives the Wi-Drive a little edge.

I picked up both the 32 GB Wi-Drive and the 500 GB Seagate GoFlex Satellite a month ago. The Wi-Drive connects with both Kindle Fires, but the Wi-Drive app is not compatible with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus. The GoFlex Satellite connects with all three, although the GoFlex Media app had to be sideloaded onto the Fires. We like being able to use the bridge mode of the Wi-Drive so the Fires can stream movies and still have wifi access. That's the one drawback of the GoFlex Satellite, connect to it and you have no wifi. The GoFlex Satellite has much better storage capacity, 500 GB v. 32 GB, but having the wifi connection gives the Wi-Drive a little edge.

The Wi-Drive is now $80 at Amazon.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1" tablet and it works well with the Wi-Drive. I got that app from the Android Market and got the KF one when it was new in the Amazon store. I also use it with the Samsung Galaxy S2 phone.